Prison of Choice
-So far Swift Blade has been a really boring prisoner. Boring if you're a guard expecting a bunch of attitude that gives them an excuse to pummel the prisoner. Swift Blade doesn't offer any of that. She's polite when spoken to. At the moment she is just sitting in her cell, optics powered down. That's generally what she's doing when she's not reading the datapad that Ultra Magnus left with her, or inputing something on it. -Blurr has received word that Swift Blade had been arrested. On the one hand, she deserved it, it was good. On the other hand, it's...rather disappointing, and sad. Yet another innocent neutral corrupted by terrorists. What a shame. Think of the life she could have had. And yet she chose this. He can't help but sigh at her sitting there in her cell. Why is even here? To tell her I-told-you-so? Or maybe he's just hoping she's learned her lesson. -Picking up on the sigh, Swift Blade's optics glow back to life and she looks up. A sad smile crosses her features. "I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised to see you here." Slowly she rises to her feet. "Is there comfort in knowing that justice will be served?" Oddly, this isn't a bitter or passive-aggressive question: she actually seems to want an answer as she peers expectantly at the speedster. -"Yes and no, I guess." Blurr replies, shrugging. "Justice -should- be served, but I wish it didn't have to be this way." He sighs again. "Why, Swiftblade? -Why- did you have to choose this for yourself? You could have had a better life. You had a -clean- cache. I told you not to listen to people who were going to mess your life up!" -Swift Blade shrugs her shoulders at this. "I could have. Perhaps it's just luck; Blast Off was the first Cybertronian I met after touching down on the planet; perhaps that just shaped the way I viewed everything from that point on." She shakes her head. "I might not have gotten involved, but I didn't want to see him go to prison; he was adamant about that. When you boarded that shipment I had a feeling that would be the outcome; he may be skilled but he couldn't match your speed, alone, in close quarters. So I made the choice." -"But you shouldn't let -other- people decide what your life is like for you!" Blurr insists. Oh, -he's- certainly one to talk. "You're you, not Blast Off, not Megatron. Your life is your decision. Blast Off isn't -worth- throwing your entire life away." -Swift Blade tilts her head the side as she regards Blurr. "Worth. What is anyone worth? I had a /price/ once, in currency. I was sold, multiple times, so I was worth something to everyone except myself. I had value, but I was not valued. I can't look at anyone and gauge their worth by a set standard. I have to see what about them is of value and try to bring it out." She sighs softly. "The current system is based on a hierarchy of worth that is arbitrarily defined by a few people in power. Can I really trust that judgement?" Clasping her hands behind her back, she continues on to say, "Oh, I know he's not perfect, and he has quite a history behind him, one that I don't know the half of. And, perhaps, I couldn't let him disappear without knowing more of it. That is selfish of me, but for millions of years, I had no opportunity to /be/ selfish." -Blurr shakes his head. "Pff, I doubt that was the only reason. You could find out history -without- talking to him." He points out. "I'm just saying, you shouldn't have let all his cargo drag you down. You had a chance at a better life, and you let him ruin it for you." -"Not the inside of his history, not the things that made him make his decisions," Swift Blade protests. "The 'why' would be completely obscured, and that is the most important part. He had a lot of potential in his past, and I want to know what choice changed that and why he would have made such a choice." She smiles faintly. "But apart from that, I couldn't have sided with the law. Laws can be bad. It was the law that kept me in slavery for so long, sanctioned by alien governments. It was the law that oblivated any personal idenity I had. So I came here fully understanding that laws can be wrong, and they can be bad, and in such cases, it is 'good' to defeat such laws. Though, granted, I would have wished for a better way to achieve that resolution." -"Anything -can- be bad." Blurr argues. "Being in prison is bad, and siding with terrorists is bad. Terrorists who go around murdering innocent people just because they're mad at the world." he points out. "I'd say that's -worse- than 'bad' laws. That's why you're here. Because you're not just trying to defeat laws, you're trying to kill the people who made them, and the people who follow them." -"I'm not trying to kill anyone, or encourage anyone to kill anyone. And being on the opposing side would not give me any sort of position to convince them otherwise," Swift Blade says thoughtfully. "Yes, being here is bad, but I took the risk because I saw something that I felt I shouldn't ignore." She purses her lips. "In a way, it might be worse than a 'bad' law, but on the other hand, the law is 'supposed' to be good, and if it fails, what recourse do people have?" She shakes her head. "The one thing I've definitively done that got me in trouble was to prevent you from taking in Blast Off. I didn't kill anyone that time, and nor would I have let Blast Off kill you." -"That's what you -think-, isn't it? You think you're not guilty because you haven't -directly- tried to kill anyone? You're wrong. If you helped Megatron, or -any- of the Decepticons, you're just as guilty as the one holding the axe, really." Blurr replies. "And do you really think this is all it's ever going to be? Do you think Megatron's going to stop here? No, he's not going to stop, Swiftblade, not until he's brought any and all semblance of order and civilization crashing down on all of us. Even -more- innocent people are going to -die-, and you're okay with that? I know Blast Off sure is." -"No, it's not what I think at all," Swift Blade corrects. "But I also don't believe you're entirely correct either. I would never claim to be innocent, but it also isn't fair to insist someone had an intention that they never had. If the only people with Megatron are thugs, then yes, it will be a force that is unstoppable and will only bring chaos and misery. The more people they have with even a touch of reason, with more calmness than anger, the more chances that they will be able to come out of those dangerous levels and become a force for good. But if all good is forced away from them, and the anger is still so strong, then it will spell a sad fate for us all." -"Yeah right, so you think he'll listen to you if you tell him to stop killing people? Or tell him that he shouldn't murder enforcers and politicians? No, -you're- the one who's more likely going to have to listen to -him- when he tells -you- to murder them." Blurr argues. "And are you going to do then? What if he tells you to kill me? He wants to bring down the Senate, but do you think he'll stop there? No. He's going to kill everyone who disagrees with him, Swiftblade, just you watch." -Swift Blade shakes her head. "Not right away, no, but I hadn't had much of a chance," she says. "And if nothing changes, and Megatron is defeated, then it will only be a matter of time before someone tries again." She rubs her forehead. "Have you ever actually read his writings? They were the words of an idealist. Something forced him down a darker road, but if more people had listened to him earlier, we might all have been spared this coming storm. There was something good there, and it was tarnished." -"It doesn't matter what was or what could have been. The fact of the matter is, he's misguided -now-." Blurr insists. "And what if he -isn't- defeated? What if he succeeds? He's going to bring the whole -planet- down with him. I guess you're fine with that." -Swift Blade sighs. "No, I'm not fine with the planet being brought down. I just think that with the right guidance it might not come to that. Not everyone on his side has murder in their sparks. But those that do will outweight those who don't if the opportunity is never given." She shifts slightly on her feet and folds her arms across her chest. "But you never answered my question: have you ever read his writing?" -"Yes, it will. You know why? Because bull-headed brutes like most of them are don't -listen- to 'guidance' no matter who is giving it or how many are giving it. I mean, don't you think someone's already -tried- that with them by now? They don't -listen- to 'stand down'." Blurr replies forcefully. "Brute force has to be stopped with brute force, there's nothing we can do about that. You can't -talk- at a zolanium steel block falling down a cliff and expect it to stop halfway down. No, something has to -physically- catch its fall." "And no, I haven't read it because we're not allowed to, don't you know? It's contraband." -"Actually, no I don't believe they /have/ tried that," Swift Blade says. "Because, from the sounds of things, even voicing these opinions makes those in power feel threatened." She gives Blurr a long look. "They don't want you to read it because they can't afford to have anyone think he makes sense. They only /want/ you to see a vicious thug. Freedom of information exists on some worlds, you know. People are allowed to share such ideas and so they don't feel the same need to get violent to secure those rights." Her expression softens. "But I don't blame you. In general, it /is/ a good thing to follow the law." -A noise akin to a snort exits Blurr's cooling systems. "Yeah, that's what they told you, isn't it?" He shakes his head. "That no one ever tried any kind of peaceful negotiation or reasoning. Did you ever stop to think that even if the Senate isn't always telling the full truth, your 'Con friends aren't exactly doing that either?" -"Telling someone that their only 'peaceful' solution is to just accept it and never hope for things to get better does not strike me as good negotiating," Swift Blade says. "But, you do make a point. In that case, I would be right back where I started, choosing neither side and dying, which is what everyone said would happen if I did NOT choose a side." She frowns. "That simply tells me that it was a lose lose situation." -Blurr shrugs. "I never said you'd die if you didn't choose a side. It just wouldn't help you avoid having to find yourself up against former friends. Maybe if you just went into hiding, you'd never have to deal with any of it." He sighs, turning away. "Whatever, it's your life. You want this kind of path for yourself, then I can't stop you." He starts to walk away, looking very confident in himself, unlike their previous encounter. Well maybe he is just very moody...or maybe he has some kind of multiple personality disorder. -Swift Blade's face is sad as she watches Blurr go, but there is little regret in that sadness. Her optics watch him until she can no longer see him. Then she settles herself back down until she looks pretty much the way she did when he entered.